Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless networks, and more specifically to provisioning a dual mode wireless device for operation in accordance with a layer-2 wireless protocol after being operational in accordance with another layer-2 wireless protocol.
Related Art
A wireless device refers to a device which communicates with other devices/systems over a wireless medium. The communication is often based on a layer-2 protocol (generally defined consistent with ISO's OSI standard), which defines aspects such as medium access/sharing, addressing of individual devices, and various conventions as a basis for transfer of packets between wireless devices using the wireless medium. Higher layers such as Internet protocol (IP) are defined on top of the layer-2 protocol as is well known in the relevant arts.
Wireless devices are often designed to operate in dual mode, implying that a wireless device can operate with a first network based on a first wireless layer-2 protocol and also a second network based on a second layer-2 protocol. Such operation can be based on Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) or concurrent operation, even though the embodiments of the description herein are provided with respect to TDM operation.
However, for a wireless device to operate in dual mode, the device needs to be configured for operation according to both the layer-2 wireless protocols. For example, assuming that a wireless device is to operate with an IEEE 802.11 based wireless network (also referred to as WLAN/WiFi), and also with an IEEE 802.15.4 based wireless network (WPAN), the device may need to be configured with parameters such as network identifier and security credentials (including, for e.g., pass-phrase and security keys) of both of the networks.
There are often situations when a network device is operational in accordance with one of the wireless layer-2 protocols and is required to be configured for operation in accordance with the second wireless layer-2 protocol. Aspects of the present disclosure provide for such configuration, as described below with respect to examples.
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